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15 Jan 2010

U.N. Condemns Land Grabs in Native Territories

seems to be a lot of net problems in London, so apologies for lack of posts, just had that from Phil Gasper, gracias amigo.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 14 (IPS) - Millions of people around the world whobelong to indigenous communities continue to face discrimination and abuseat the hands of authorities and private business concerns, says a new U.N.report released here Thursday.It is happening not only in the developing parts of the world but also incountries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand,which champion the causes of human rights and democracy, the report says.

Despite all the "positive developments" in international human rightssetting in recent years, the study's findings suggest that indigenouspeoples remain vulnerable to state-sponsored violence and brutality, whichis often aimed at confiscating their lands.

"Governments and the United Nations need to be serious about this," saidVictoria Tauli-Corpus, chairperson of the U.N. Permanent Forum on IndigenousIssues, an advisory body that works with the 54-member Economic and SocialCouncil, after launching the report.

The 222 page-report, entitled "State of the World's Indigenous Peoples",points out that an overwhelming majority of the indigenous population iscondemned to live in extreme poverty. Its authors noted that whileindigenous peoples are around five percent of the world's population, theycomprise 15 percent of people living in extreme poverty.

Explaining her findings, one of the report's authors, Myrna Cunningham, saidindigenous communities in many countries are living in abject povertybecause they have lost their lands to private interests that are oftenbacked by state authorities.

She also raised concerns about the extrajudicial killing of indigenouspeople in some parts of the world. In this context, she cited the examplesof Colombia and Peru, where extreme hostility towards native people has beenwell-documented by human rights organisations.

"There are several cases where indigenous peoples are being identified bygovernments as terrorists," Cunningham told IPS, adding that it was in clearviolation of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The U.N. Declaration was adopted by the General Assembly in 2007. Thehistoric document calls for the recognition of native populations' right tocontrol their lands and protect their culture and language.

The report's chapter dealing with environmental issues suggests that most ofthe deforestation is taking place on indigenous territories due to massiveoperations by mining corporations. It says many of the business ventures onnative lands are illegal.

"We have agonised over many ongoing situations," said Ben Powless, anindigenous activist in Canada who has attended numerous internationalmeetings on climate change and biodiversity, including the U.N. summit heldin Copenhagen, Denmark last month.

Powless said those situations included "the massacres of our relatives inthe Peruvian Amazon, the evictions of our Masai families in Kenya, and thedevastation of our communities by the impacts of climate change."

Large dams and mining activities have caused massive displacements ofindigenous peoples in many countries. The study's authors documented severalcases where native people were forced by the tourism industry to leave theirancestral lands.

The report points out that in many countries around the world, indigenouschildren are not only deprived of education, but also lack adequate accessto health care and nutritious food.

That, according to Cunningham, is against "our right to self-determination".

The U.N. General Assembly fully recognises indigenous populations' right toexercise their right to "self-determination". However, some powerfulcountries, including the United States and Canada, have rejected theDeclaration.

Contrary to the previous U.S. administration's stance, President BarackObama seems willing to sign on to the declaration. ¨We are having a dialoguewith the U.S. government," Tauli-Corpus told IPS. "We are doing all we can."

At the news conference, Tauli-Corpus raised hopes that at future talks onclimate change, indigenous peoples' rights to control their lands andforests will be given due consideration. But not all indigenous leadersthink along the same lines.

Recent negotiations on climate change have suggested that deforestation inindigenous lands could be tackled by means of carbon trading. Manyindigenous peoples see that as a tool of corruption and a threat to theircultural survival.

"Carbon trading and carbon offsets are a crime against humanity andCreation," said Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the IndigenousEnvironmental Network. "The sky is sacred."

"This carbon market insanity privatises the air and sells it to climatecriminals like Shell so they can continue to pollute and destroy the climateand our future, rather than reducing their emissions at source," he added ina statement.

Considering the fact that much of the world's forests are located inindigenous peoples' lands, Goldtooth fears that carbon trading would pavethe way for more "land grabs, killings, evictions and forced displacement"of native communities.

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I am a green activist, writer and economist. Three kids, live in Winkfield. Live low impact on the land in my trailer, I am a Green Party local councillor. Ecosocialist and fan of Elinor Ostrom, have worked closely with the Peruvian indigenous leader Hugo Blanco to fight.